EU Agricultural and FisheriesMarket Access forDeveloping and Transition Countries

This report describes the characteristics of a trade policy analysis database constructed for the International Trade Department (ITD) of the Department for International Development (DFID) and the findings of an initial round of enquiries undertaken either with the database or as a result of its outputs. The objective of the project has been to assist the ITD to undertake a range of enquiries on agriculture and fisheries trade policy. With respect to agriculture, this has been particularly with regard to the implications of alternative EU positions on market access in the WTO Agreement on Agriculture negotiations for developing countries. This objective has been achieved in three ways:

• developing a database in Access using data obtained from a range of sources that can be used for trade policy analysis;
• writing a Training Handbook to familiarise users with a basic competence in Access, initially in ITD, to use the database in their on-going work;
• undertaking a set of specific analyses intended both to identify key developing country interests with respect to EU agricultural trade policy and, more generally, to demonstrate the potential of the database.